There's nothing like a victory to help the Reds move on from the disaster that was the weekend series with St. Louis.

"We just needed a win" he said. "Put all the negatives behind us. Get rid of what happened the other day because you can't bring it back. Today is the only day that matters. And we won."

The Reds beat the Oakland A's 3-1 before a crowd of 34640 at Great American Ball Park.

Mat Latos (11-3) put the club in position to win by pitching 7 1/3 shuotut innings. Latos was not at his dominating best. He allowed four hits walked three and struck out three -- his lowest strikeout total of the year.

But Latos was good when he needed to be: The A's went 0-for-6 with runners in scoring position against him. They had a runner on third and no outs in the third and runners at second and third in the fifth. He escaped both times.

"Latos was in and out of trouble" Baker said. "He made the pitches when he had to. We made the defense plays when we had to."

"Mat pitched great" Jay Bruce said. "He didn't need much help."

Latos begged to differ on that count.

"My curveballs were around the neck and my sliders were at the toes" Latos said. "A lot of credit has to go to (catcher Devin) Mesoraco and the defense. All the credit actually. Mesoraco's maturing. He's doing really well. He recognized I didn't have my slider. I really didn't have any off-speed pitch. He recognized it and exploited a weakness with them."

J.J. Hoover got the final two outs of the eighth.

Aroldis Chapman worked the ninth for his 26th save. He struck out the first two batters he faced then gave up a home run to Derek Norris on a 3-2 pitch.

The Reds got an assist from Ted Kremer who served as a batboy. Baker appreciates Kremer's positive vibe.

"I wish everybody was as positive as Teddy is" Baker said. "He's a 'homer' in every sense of the word. He's for the home team. Sometimes it appears everyone is not as positive as Teddy. Here's a guy who has a smile on his face when he could be sad. Other people should take a tip from Teddy."